Tierra Morgan death: Investigator can tell jury about experiments to re-enact how she was killed, judge rules

Feb. 12, 2014

Arthur E. Morgan III as he signed a form waiving extradition at a 2011 hearing in San Diego. Morgan was charged with murdering his 2-year-old daughter, Tierra. / ASSOCIATED PRESS

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FREEHOLD — A prosecutor’s investigator will be allowed to tell a jury his observations of experiments conducted to re-enact the death of 2-year-old Tierra Morgan when the toddler’s father, Arthur E. Morgan III, is tried for her murder next month, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mellaci ruled that Deputy Chief Albert DeAngelis of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office can testify about re-enactments of various scenarios of how the baby may have ended up in a stream in Shark River Park, strapped in her pink car seat with a tire iron tethered to it. Mellaci, however, ruled that DeAngelis cannot testify to any conclusions he reached in conducting the experiments, nor can he give an opinion on Morgan’s credibility in telling detectives he did not throw the baby in her car seat off a bridge over the Shark River tributary.

Defense attorney Jeffrey Coghlan sought to exclude DeAngelis’ opinions on the experiments, in which detectives re-enacted three scenarios to explain how the victim’s body wound up in the stream.

They include throwing the child in her car seat off the bridge into the creek, placing her in the water and dropping her. In performing the experiments, investigators placed a sandbag equivalent to Tierra’s weight into a car seat, with a tire iron attached to it, Mellaci noted.

“DeAngelis may testify as to his direct observations during the experimental re-enactment,” Mellaci said. “He may not offer testimony regarding inferences drawn or conclusions he drew.”

Mellaci ruled in October that the state cannot present videotapes of its experimental demonstrations to the jury, saying that would be too prejudicial.

Morgan, 30, picked up his daughter from her mother’s home in Lakehurst on Nov. 21, 2011, and was supposed to return her that evening, but never did. The mother, Imani Benton, reported the child missing to Lakehurst police the following day. Later that day, a group of teenagers found the child in the creek in Shark River Park in Wall.

Morgan is set to stand trial next month. Jury selection for the trial is slated to begin the week of March 3. A final pretrial conference in the case is scheduled at 1:30 p.m. Feb. 27.

Morgan is charged with murder, endangering the welfare of a child and interfering with custody. He remains held in the Monmouth County jail in Freehold Township.